Wild Nights With My Brother's Ex-Best Friend novel Chapter 69

ROMAN

Nikki Monroe will be mine.

This time, I'm sure of it, and I won't mess up.

One careless mistake is costing me a shit of a lot of effort, but it's worth it. She's worth it. I didn't know what it was like to lose someone while they were still alive and breathing. Every day she's away from me, my longing grows.

It's getting to the point where I won't know where to begin once I finally get my hands on her, and my imagination for all things filthy has never failed me before.

I miss her taste like crazy, though, my maybe dipping my tongue in her warm, tight, delicious center is the first thing I'll do once I get my hands on her.

My dick dents my pants, but I'm seated, so nobody will notice it. I'm seated in a bar across from the restaurant she's in, and from here, I have a clear view of her, even from a distance.

She hadn't looked back at me once, so my assumption is she hasn't seen me yet. My initial plan wasn't to approach Sebastian and make my presence known. I wanted to shock her—catch her off guard so she wouldn't be so defensive when I presented her with the real story, and not the made-up shit that Haley told her just to win an advantage over me.

It's funny how things are. Months ago, I was just like her—playing a game I would never be able to win. Living for her. Fucking women senseless and imagining it was her. Haley was my biggest heartbreak. When she left me for Mason, it was a bruise to my ego that never healed.

Every time I thought about her, I relived that memory over and over again.

The betrayal. The bitterness. The vow of revenge. Thinking back to it now, it was all so pathetic. It's not that I wanted Haley back because I would never be able to forget how much it hurt for her to stab me in the back with my best friend. No, I just wanted them to suffer. Not just Mason, but Haley too.

It was the only reason why I initially approached Nikki. I knew it would fucking kill Haley to see me with her. It was all so stupid and selfish.

And in the end, I was the one who lost. Brutally.

I remember our last conversation so vividly. Or rather, I should say second to last. It was after I found out about her and Mason. She came to see me one last time. Hoping for I don't know what.

"Why'd you fucking do it?" I asked her. I was so fucking hurt that it was pathetic. That pain is nothing compared to what I feel now, watching Sebastian put his hand on my girl. Knowing he knows how she tastes.

Focus.

Haley wore a smile on her lips. She thought she won, but those who laugh last laugh the hardest. Isn't that how the saying goes? "Because I wanted you to know what I felt, being so far away from you all the time. He was there, and you weren't."

"You're fucking sick," I spat. "You don't even love him!"

"You don't know that," she claimed, shrugging. "Mason's more of a man than you'll ever be. He'd do anything for me. You...you're too selfish to love, Roman!"

I pushed myself off the counter and closed the distance between us. My head was spinning a little because of how much I drank, but I wasn't drunk enough to forget that interaction.

I grabbed her by the arms—Haley liked it rough—and pushed her against the wall. It was like she came right then and there.

"That doesn't mean you love him," I said in a low voice. "You're using him to get back at me, but what you don't know is that you lost me forever by doing that. I'll never take you back now."

Panic flashed in her eyes. "I don't want you to."

"Why are you here, then?" I questioned. "What did you come all the way here for?"

She said nothing and I recalled letting go of her. I turned away and suddenly, she was on top of me, grabbing me and forcing me to kiss her.

That was when I knew I was right all along—she did it all out of spite but she still wanted me.

So, I did what any normal, able-minded person would do.

There she goes again with the ridiculous accusations about me. "You can call me whatever you'd like and most of it will end up being the truth anyway, but I've never raped anyone, Nikki. I've never been into that. Never."

A disbelieving scoff leaves her lips and she starts to turn away, but I practically jump off my seat and grab her arm to stop her.

She whirls around to face me and her sweet, delicious scent invades my nostrils. I miss it so much my cock stirs. "What if I have proof that things didn't go down the way she said they did?"

"I don't believe that for a second. You'd manipulate and cheat your way out of anything."

I close the distance between us so our bodies are almost pressed against each other, and I notice how her expression changes. It's subtle, but I pick it up.

It doesn't matter how many times she tells herself she doesn't want me.

Oh, yes she fucking does.

I can see the lust in her eyes even now.

"I have actual proof, baby," I promise her. "All you have to do is listen to it. All of it."

Doubt crosses her expression, but then she tears her arm out of my grip. I let her go, not struggling. No Problem.

We've got seven days on this ship.

By the end of the last day, she'll be mine again.

That I know for a fact.